What are schools really about?

This afternoon we walked down to the bus stop and took the sea bus over to Granville Island.

We wandered around the market looking at the most amazing fruit and vegetables. The produce section at the supermarkets in Regina are filled during the winter with fruits and vegetables that come from all over the world - and they look it - tired, without colour and unappetizing. That certainly wasn't the case today at Granville Island. The oranges were huge and a beautiful orange colour, the strawberries were deep coloured and piled high, the raspberries and blueberries looked sweet, juicy and almost irresistible.

But my favourites were the flowers


















As we wandered around the various art galleries, gift shops and tourist stores I found a book store - but a special bookstore. It only sold books related to food - cookbooks, food travel books, etc.

My daughter Stacey is a fabulous baker. She makes the most wonderful pies and cookies. To my delight she has asked my mother for all of her recipes and Stacey is slowly working her way through them.

The woman that was working in the store pointed out a book that she thought would interest me and Stacey. The book focuses on cakes, pastries and desserts - but in particular it stresses technique in working with those foods.

I bought the book for Stacey and I can't wait to give it to her.

When I was paying for the book the clerk asked me if I wanted to register for the store's points program. I told her we were from Saskatchewan and probably wouldn't be able to accumulate or use the points.

What she said next stunned me.

She pointed out that it had been an unusual winter in Vancouver and wondered if there had been snow and some cold spells in Saskatchewan too. I didn't know what to say to her - and she finally figured out that I was speechless.

When I regained my brain we talked for a bit. She had been born and raised in Vancouver - she graduated high school here with decent grades and was now attending the University of British Columbia.

This girl did not know that the climate in Saskatchewan was not the same as the climate in Vancouver.

Is this the school's fault?